Coming home for Christmas
by GothGirl1996
Summary: Marina Holly Salvatore, vampire and Sister to Damon and Stefan. She has been apart form her brothers for over 100 years, now after foreseeing something big happening in Mystic Falls she is back to protect the ones she holds dear, including her ex lover- who Damon happens to be best friends with. She arrives just in time for christmas, surprising her brothers who thought her dead.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Remembering

Stefan sniffed and wiped a tear from his eye. Elena walked up the stairs to his room, paused to knock until she heard him crying. She walked straight in and found Stefan sat at his desk, an aged photograph between his fingers, a rosewood box engraved with holly leaves and the initials 'MHS' on the lid, between his elbows.

"Stefan?"

"Elena. What's up?" Stefan said composing himself quickly and putting the photograph back on the box as he saw Elena walking towards him.

"Are you okay?"

Stefan contemplated saying yes that he was fine, but he knew Elena well enough to know she'd see through that. "No. I'm remembering."

"Remembering what?" She asked kindly, for whatever it was, it had caused him great upset. Only then did she see the photograph, an aged sepia photograph of him, Damon and a young woman- the young woman had her arms around both of the boys and all were smiling, jovially. It must have been winter, for there was snow on the ground.

"My sister." Stefan said and handed her the photograph of him and his siblings. Elena smiled at the sight of a younger Stefan. The photograph was dated, on the reverse, 1861. Stefan would have been 13 or so.

"She's pretty. What was her name?"

"Her name was Marina Holly. She was born on Christmas Eve 1843, 5 years before I was born. In 1861, when that photograph was taken she was 18, it was the evening of her majority ball, our father hosted."

"She's very beautiful, Stefan."

"Damon said she looked a lot like our mother. My mother died when I was small, I don't really remember her. Marina had long auburn hair which curled a little at the ends as it got longer. Her eyes were green like mine but she had a navy blue ring around her irises, a similar shade to Damon's. She was about Damon's height too. She was so kind, with an honest and loyal heart. She was a writer, Elena, she encouraged me to keep my journals." Stefan smiled, remembering the young woman who had doted on him as a child, the woman who had very much been a mother to him after their own died when Stefan was no older than 10. He was rummaging through the box again, the box of her belongings, those he had kept.

From the bottom of the box he produced a thin journal no bigger than modern A5 sized paper. It was curling and the pages were stained with age. It had obviously been well thumbed. "She wrote this., for me when I was small. She used to make stories and write them down for me when I couldn't sleep."

Stefan opened it and showed Elena his sisters cursive script. On the inside cover she had written: November 1st 1856' for the best little brother I could not have wished for. Happy 10th birthday, Stefan, sweetheart. With love, your sister, Marina x"

Elena smiled, as she took the book off Stefan admiring the handwriting as Stefan moved to his book shelf and pulled a large book off the top shelf. "I wonder..." Stefan whispered and Elena looked at him.

"Stefan?"

"We need to see Bonnie. I want to know if she can do this spell." Stefan said.

"What spell?"

"A spell my sister created, which means I might be able to show you my memories of her, Elena." Stefan looked sad, but took her hand when she offered it.

"She was a witch?"

"In secret, our father would have... killed... her if he'd known," Stefan sniffed again, fighting tears.

"Stefan, what happened to her?"

"She sacrificed herself to save me, when my father tried to kill me, when I was transitioning." Stefan broke down then and all Elena could do was hug him.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Marina Holly Salvatore climbed down from a train and waved for a taxi in Chicago.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Happy birthday to me

Marina's POV

I sat in the taxi in Chicago, quietly browsing through my phone when I looked at the date. Christmas Eve. I smiled and looked out the window in snowy Chicago at the parks filled with newly made snowmen,he children of the city.

"Happy birthday to me." I whispered as a snowflake landed heavily against the window. "Happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Marina, happy birthday to me!" By now several had fallen and by the time I got to the airport in Chicago, the snow was thick on the ground.

I took a flight to Virginia and then hired a car to drive to mystic falls. It wasn't a long drive but it was long enough. As I entered the town my heart raced, I hadn't been back here since before... Well since before my turning, at that awful time when my father had tried to kill my little brother and had succeeded in killing me and his unborn grandchild.

I only hoped my return would be welcomed by Stefan and Damon- the best brothers the world had ever given someone. I looked in the mirror and smiled, neat and prim as I was always. As I tucked a tendril of wavy auburn hair behind my ear I turned into the dirt tracked driveway of the Salvatore boarding house- which unbeknownst to my brothers I had watched being built fifty years after Veritas had fallen into disrepair. I slowed and stowed my car in the trees before making my way slowly inside.


	3. Chapter 3

chapter 3

No need for a spell, Stefan.

"You want me to do what?" Bonnie asked again as Stefan gushed his ideas to her as he begged her to do the spell.

"He wants you to cast this spell his sister created in order for us to share in his memories of her. Just think Bonnie, what agreed gift to give Stefan for christmas?" Elena explained.

"I can't bring her back Stefan..."

"I know, Bonnie, all I ask is to see her and hear her laugh once more, please do this for me?" Stefan begged. Bonnie sighed in agreement and held out her hands for the grimoire. But as she touched it, she dropped it as if burned.

"Ow!" She cried and then stood stock still as a woman, hand out stretched towards bonnie walked into the room.

"You don't need a spell, Stefan. I never died." Stefan turned at the sound of her voice and he burst into tears. He ran over to where she stood on the top of the stairs from the front door and hugged her tightly so his head was buried in her stomach.

"Marina?" He sobbed, not believing his eyes and his sense of touch, she was real, she was there. Marina stroked his hair and smiled.

"Hello little brother."

Elena and Bonnie and Caroline who had just returned from the kitchen, stood stock still and stared.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

1861- Veritas estate.

"... Come on stand together... Yes that's it, Marina sweetie, you stands in the middle... Very good. Now hold it!" Their father, Giuseppe gushed as he huddled his children together for the photograph. He wanted to treasure this day- they day of his daughter's eighteenth birthday and majority ball where she came out into society. Marina counted to fifty in her head as she stood with her arms around Stefan and Damon.

"Perfect!" Her father cried two minutes later, the photograph taken and It was a good job too, her cheeks were beginning to hurt from smiling for so long. She rubbed her cheeks gently attempting to restore feeling in them when her young brother Stefan turned to her, his hand outstretched. A wrapped gift no bigger than a snuff box lay flat in his palm.

"What's this, Steffie?" She asked using her nickname for him.

"Happy birthday." Stefan answered, his voice mid pitched- he was at that stage when his voice was changing- and held it out once more encouraging her to take it. She did so and opened the box to reveal a single large, teardrop shaped, gemstone set into a sterling silver pendant. It was a very bright blue.

"Steffie, this is beautiful... What sort of gem is it?"

"Turkey-wise." Stefan sounded out the long, complicated word the jeweller had told him, when he'd gone into the big city with Damon in search of birthday gifts for their sister. He had blown all of his savings on it for her and a stone that size had not come cheap. Marina looked at him confused and then worked out what he had meant.

"Oh! Turquoise. Well, Steffie is beautiful. Thank you." She hugged her little brother close, so his head was in her stomach and kissed the top of his head.

"I said Turkey-wise. I thought I would look nice against the dark blue of your gown you had made up when we visited the big city together." Steffie explained.

"It will and do you know what else?" Steffie looked at her with wide eyes. "It is the only piece of jewellery I will wear for the rest of my life. It's wonderful and you are my favourite." She teased before she tickled him and the chased each other to the house, a long way behind Damon and their father.

She had kept her promised- she had worn that necklace everyday until the day she died. She even insisted on being buried in it. Even when she knew she wasn't going to die at all.


End file.
